It's "well and good" that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says the U.S. is keeping tabs on some 40 Americans who have re-entered the country after traveling to Iraq and Syria to fight with terrorists, but more must be done to keep illegals from crossing the borders, former INS special agent Michael Cutler said Monday on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV.
"If you look at all the terrorist attacks that have been carried out inside the United States, with the exception of Timothy McVeigh — whether it was the attack at the CIA in '93 or the first attack at the World Trade Center in '93, and 9/11 — these were all foreign nationals," said Cutler, who testified before the 9/11 Commission.
Those attacks were done by people "who have managed one way or another to gain entry into the United States, embed themselves, and then go about their deadly preparations," he said.
"We don't know who's coming across the borders without inspection," Cutler said, pointing especially to the visa waiver program.
"We don't know what they're planning if, in fact, tomorrow morning they go and carry out an attack," he said. "That's what a sleeper agent is — someone who keeps a low profile until the day they're called into action."
On CBS News' "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Johnson told correspondent Lesley Stahl that authorities are keeping "close tabs" on some 180 Americans they believe have left the U.S. to fight and on the 40 that have subsequently returned, adding that "a number have been arrested or investigated and we have systems in place to track these individuals. But you can't know everything."
It's unfathomable that the Obama administration is not, at a minimum, using the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission for the starting point of any discussions about immigration reform, Cutler said.
"Right now, the administration is giving millions of illegal aliens identity documents without a face-to-face interview and without a field investigation," he said. "What about people that simply write their name on an application, submit fingerprints, claim to be 'undocumented' — and then we go ahead within 48 hours and issue them a document that immediately enables them to get drivers licenses and Social Security cards.
"We have police departments around the United States willing to hire cops who are not citizens."
President Obama's "executive fiat" placed children who were brought to the country illegally on a pathway to lawful immigrant status and will now let them bring their parents here as well, Cutler said.
"We're making a mockery of our own immigration laws. We now have the world convinced that in America law violations are not just tolerated, but rewarded."
Cutler said he'd like to see the Republican-controlled Congress "grow a spine."
"I'm so disappointed in the Republican Party because they went after Mr. Obama, saying ... [his use of executive orders] is violating the Constitution and the rule of law, but why not talk about the damage it's doing to national security?"
Source: Newsmax
